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Occupy Wall Street has dominated headlines for
the past few weeks, with advocates and critics jaw-boning over
whether it was government or Wall Street that fueled the
financial crisis (here's a vote for both).

But even critics can't argue about the growth prospects of the
"occupations" taking place in urban centers across the U.S. Now
comes an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street that takes aim at banks
where it hurts them most — in their vaults.

The social uprising — called "Bank Transfer Day" — encourages
bank customers to take their cash out of big
banks and put it in smaller banks and credit unions instead. The movement is
ostensibly in response to aggressive fees institutions are
rolling out to recover profits lost from new financial
regulations, notably Bank of America's decision
to stick debit card users with a $5 monthly fee and Wells Fargo's $3 test of the
same.

On the movement's Facebook page, protest organizers say that,
even with new government regulations in place to keep banks in
check, they're still making out like bandits. For example;

With the Durbin Amendment in effect, banks will still make 19
cents profit per processed transaction.

The average consumer uses his or her debit card 24 times per
month.

Without the additional fee, Bank of America stands to turn a $3.3
billion annual profit from its 59 million customers' debit card
transactions.

Here's an explanation from the organizers of Bank Transfer Day,
straight from the group's Facebook page:

"Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will
always remember the 5th of November!! If the 99% removes our
funds from the major banking institutions on or by this date, we
will send a clear message and give the 1% a taste of the fear
that we experience every day when we aren't able to pay for our
rent, food, medication, utilities, student loans, etc."

As of Oct. 10, the group's organizers say 6,500 Americans have
already signed up in support of the event. How many of those
consumers will actually yank their deposits from big banks is an
open-ended question that won't be answered until Nov. 5, if at
all.

But the protest won't be going away. Consumers who want to join
in only have to take three simple steps, organizers say:

Bank Transfer Day organizers are not only hoping to piggyback the
media interest on Occupy Wall Street. There's a deeper well of
consumer dissatisfaction that the group wants to tap into — that
"I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore"
frustration, immortalized in the 1976 film Network.

Six thousand, five hundred bank transfers won't cut it, even
though the movement still seems to be growing. In the way they
treat customers, big banks could keep those numbers where they
are, shrink them — or cause them to grow into something truly
significant.